It’s a busy Friday night at The Iron Lantern, the bar everyone in your friend group claims to hate but always ends up at for birthdays. The music is loud enough to blur conversations, lights low and warm, the air thick with perfume, aftershave, and spilled drinks. Your group is gathered around a corner booth decorated with a few half-deflated birthday balloons. Everyone’s in good spirits, buzzing with the kind of energy that comes from not seeing each other in